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Saturday, October 22 at the Trans-Pacific Partnership Negotiations in Lima, Peru10/22/2011

Today, the Chief Negotiators from the United States and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) member countries – Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam – began negotiations for the ninth round which takes place in Lima, Peru. Among them include cross-border trade in services, rules of origin, legal issues, investment, the so-called “horizontal” issues, and others. Negotiators are working to reach the broad outlines of an agreement by the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders Ministerial meeting in Honolulu in November.

Tomorrow, on-site stakeholders will be given the opportunity to present their views on the agreement directly to TPP negotiating teams. Approximately 190 stakeholders from a wide range of industries, civil societies, and other constituent groups will be attending.

Through the TPP, President Obama has directed U.S. negotiators to seek a 21st-century agreement that tackles old trade concerns in new ways, that deals with cross-cutting issues previously unaddressed in trade agreements, and that benefits from an unprecedented level of stakeholder input. In 2009, the East-West Center estimated that Asia already accounted for 27 percent of total U.S. jobs from exports. The International Monetary Fund also forecasts that the Asia-Pacific economies will grow faster than the world average through at least 2014. Expanding U.S. exports to the Asia-Pacific region can contribute significantly to further job growth and economic recovery for America’s working families.

Sunday, October 23 at the Trans-Pacific Partnership Negotiations in Lima, Peru10/23/2011

On Sunday, negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement continued in Lima, Peru. Negotiators from the TPP countries began meeting on investment, horizontal issues, and technical barriers to trade. Negotiators also continued meeting on legal issues and rules of origins.

Throughout the day, stakeholders on-site had the opportunity to provide their views directly to the TPP negotiating teams. Approximately 190 stakeholders from a wide range of industry, civil society, and other groups attended, with at least 25 groups making presentations to the teams.

Monday, October 24 at the Trans-Pacific Partnership Negotiations in Lima, Peru10/25/2011

On Monday, in Lima, Peru, negotiators from member countries of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) continued their talks for the ninth round of negotiations. Negotiating teams sustained their productive discussions on non-conforming measures, technical barriers to trade, legal issues, and rules of origins. In addition, negotiators began talks on market access, intellectual property rights, telecommunications, labor, competition, and cooperation and capacity building.

Negotiations will continue throughout the week, and later today, negotiators will brief stakeholders regarding the status of the negotiations.

Tuesday, October 25 at the Trans-Pacific Partnership Negotiations in Lima, Peru10/25/2011

On Tuesday, the United States and its negotiating partners in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement concluded another day of talks in Lima, Peru. Negotiating groups continued to make progress in the areas of goods market access, non-conforming measures, legal issues, technical barriers to trade, intellectual property rights, competition, and labor. Negotiations also began on e-commerce and sanitary and phytosanitary measures.

In addition to today’s negotiations, TPP Chief Negotiators from each TPP partner economy participated in a stakeholder briefing to discuss the status of the negotiations. This open forum provided stakeholders on-site – approximately 190 were attending – the opportunity to discuss issues of interest in the negotiations. The chiefs noted that good progress was being made across the negotiating groups.

Wednesday, October 26 at the Trans-Pacific Partnership Negotiations in Lima, Peru10/26/2011

Negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement continued on Wednesday in Lima, Peru. Negotiators from the TPP countries began negotiations on financial services, customs, and the environment. They also continued their discussions on non-conforming measures, legal issues, intellectual property rights, competition, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, and competition. The teams also met bilaterally to discuss market access and other issues.

Thursday, October 27 at the Trans-Pacific Partnership Negotiations in Lima, Peru10/27/2011

Today at the ninth round of Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations in Lima, Peru, a number of negotiating groups held talks on issues including legal issues, financial services, intellectual property rights, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, temporary entry, government procurement, environment, and customs. Numerous negotiating teams also held bilateral meetings.

The Lima round of TPP talks is expected to conclude tomorrow, with chief negotiators receiving reports from the remaining negotiating groups on their progress during the week.

TPP Negotiators Conclude Strong Ninth Round of Negotiations10/28/2011

Lima, Peru – Today, the United States and its Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) partners concluded a ninth round of negotiations in Lima, Peru. During this round, negotiators built upon progress made in previous rounds and pressed forward toward the goal of reaching the broad outlines of an ambitious, jobs-focused agreement by the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders’ meeting in Honolulu, HI next month. At APEC, President Obama and his counterparts from the other eight TPP countries will take stock of progress to date and discuss next steps.

TPP negotiators from the United States, Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam made further considerable progress on the legal texts of the agreement, as well as on the cross-cutting issues of small- and medium-sized enterprises, regulatory coherence, competitiveness, and development. With further domestic consultation on outstanding issues, the nine countries will move toward closure of a number of chapters. On more complex and sensitive chapters countries need more time to find convergence.

Before this round, the United States also put forward its new proposed text on state-owned enterprises, on which the teams had constructive initial discussions. This text was prepared in close consultation with U.S. stakeholders and Congress. The text is intended to help level the playing field for U.S. exporters and workers by addressing distortions to trade and competition that result from unfair advantages governments provide to these enterprises. The United States also tabled new text on labor, and the teams had a productive exchange on this issue as well.

The TPP member countries continued to make steady progress on the packages they are negotiating for access to each other’s markets. In addition to meeting collectively, the United States and its partners met bilaterally to advance discussions of these elements of the negotiations. Countries plan to prepare revised offers based on these discussions and requests made for improvements in specific areas, continuing the process of building up an ambitious market access outcome.

Nearly 200 stakeholders were on-site during the negotiations and many made presentations to the nine negotiating teams during a day-long stakeholder forum. Stakeholders also participated in an event on creating opportunities for small-and medium-sized enterprises to develop business in TPP countries. In addition, stakeholders met with individual negotiating teams to provide their views on specific issues.

The U.S. and other negotiating teams will return to their respective capitals and update their Ministers on the specific outcomes of their work over the nine negotiating rounds, in preparation for assessment by the nine Leaders at the APEC meeting.